Mike Brodie’s first monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was published by Twin Palms more than a decade ago in 2013, depicting his fellow rail-riders and drifters in a rebellious and wildfire pursuit of adventure and freedom. “Brodie leapt into the life of picture-making as if he was the first to do it,” Danny Lyon wrote about the book in Aperture. Next came Tones of Dirt and Bone, a collection of earlier SX-70 pictures Brodie made when photography first led him to hopping freights, when he was known as “The Polaroid Kidd.” And then Brodie seemed to disappear from the art world as suddenly and mysteriously as he’d first appeared. Maybe his vanishing was another myth. Maybe it was just a necessary retreat. “I was divorcing myself from all that,” he says. “I was growing up. I was pursuing this other life.”

In Nashville he became a diesel mechanic. Fell in love. Moved across the country again. Got married. Bought land on the long dusty Winnemucca road Johnny Cash sang about. Started his own business. Built a house. Put down roots. And when that life exploded, the open road called again. Throughout almost all of it, his cameras were with him, and at last those pictures are coming to light.

If Michael Brodie’s first monograph was a cinematic dream, his latest, Failing, again published by Twin Palms in 2024, is the awakening and the reckoning, a raw, wounded, and searingly honest photographic diary of a decade marked by love and heartbreak, loss and grief — biblical in its scope, and in its search for truth and meaning. Here is the flip side of the American dream, seen from within; here is bearing close witness to the brutal chaos of addiction and death; here are front-seat encounters with hitchhikers and kindred wanderers on society’s edges, sustained by the ragtag community of the road. Failing often exists in darkness but is tuned to grace. Brodie’s eye stays forever open to the strange and fleeting beauty that exists in forgotten places — the open country and the lost horizons that sweep past dust-spattered windows in a spectral blur.

Mike worked on and features in a recently released hour long documentary eponymously entitled Slack, the nickname of his one time girlfriend, Mia Justice Smith, who sadly died of a drug overdose, and to whom the film is dedicated. The film, which is directed by Mike’s friend and collaborator Cyrill Lachauer., revisits the freighthopping years and delves into Mike's creative collaboration with Mia.

In episode 266, Mike discusses, among other things:

• The documentary he helped to make about his freighthopping years - Slack
• How train hopping and photography went hand in hand
• Romanticism vs. misery
• Train hopping as a performance
• Losing his girlfriend, Mia Justice Smith, to a drug overdose
• His attempt at a ‘normal’ life and how that impacts his creativity
• The success of A Period of Juvenile Prosperity and its downside
• How the title came about
• The darkness of the pictures in latest book, Failing
• Tussling with the question of exploitation and ethical responsibility
• Ambitions to make a feature film one day
• The ongoing push/pull of art v. home life
• The desire to photograph machines and ways of life and ways of working that are passing away
• Next steps in the USA - projects vs. photographing life

Website | Instagram

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Merlin Daleman (b.1977) is a British photographer who has spent most of his adult life living in the Netherlands. He attended South Devon College, Torquay, the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) in the UK, and graduated from The Royal College of Art in The Hague, the Netherlands. He works as a freelance documentary photographer for leading Dutch publications, including NRC Handelsblad, Dagblad Trouw, Financieel Dagblad, and De Groene Amsterdammer. He is the recipient of awards including the Silver Camera awards for Documentary Photography in the Netherlands in 2008 and 2010 and had received grants from the EU Journalism Foundation Grant and the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship. His debut photobook, Mutiny, published by GOST Books in August 2025, builds on his long-term projects, such as the new black lung epidemic in Kentucky, USA and exploring the lives of families separated by labour migration in Ukraine.

In episode 265 Merlin discusses, among other things:

• How the Mutiny project came about
• How he funded it and set about shooting it
• Some of the stories behind images in the book
• Black lung story in Appalachia
• How a major motorycle accident helped his photography

Website | Instagram

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Eli Reed was born in the US in 1946 and studied pictorial illustration at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, graduating in 1969. In 1982, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he studied political science, urban affairs, and the prospects for peace in Central America.

Eli began photographing as a freelancer in 1970. His work from El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries attracted the attention of Magnum, he was the first African American photographer, and indeed the first person of colour, to join the agency, becoming a full member in 1988.

In the same year, Eli photographed the effects of poverty on America’s children for a film documentary called Poorest in the Land of Plenty, narrated by Maya Angelou. He went on to work as a stills photographer for major motion pictures. His video documentary Getting Out was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1993 and honored by the 1996 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame International Film and Video Competition in the documentary category.

Eli’s special reports include a long-term study which became his first, highly acclaimed book, Beirut, City of Regrets; the ousting of Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti (1986); US military action in Panama (1989); the Walled City in Hong Kong; and, perhaps most notably, his documentation of African American experience over more than 20 years. Spanning the 1970s through the end of the 1990s, his book Black in America includes images from the Crown Heights riots and the Million Man March. In 2015, he published his first career retrospective, A Long Walk Home.

Eli has lectured and taught at the International Center of Photography, Columbia University, New York University, University of Texas and Harvard University and is a member of Kamoinge, the collective of black photographers founded in 1963 and the longest continuously running non-profit group in the history of photography.

On episode 264, Eli discusses, among other things:

• His ongoing mentoring of former students
• How working in a hospital was good prep for the kind of work he does
• Growing up in the Delaney Homes housing project in Perth Amboy, NJ
• How a visiting art critic gave him early encouragement at school
• Losing his mum at 12 years old
• The importance of certain teachers and mentors, especially Donal Greenhouse
• How his project Black In America came about
• Working for the San Francisco Examiner
• Joining Eugene Smith’s workshop after a long wait
• How Philip Jones Griffiths invited him to join Magnum
• Whether he is still an optimist?
• Photographing Trump
• Kamoinge
• A teaser about the book he is writing
• Being the first person of colour to join Magnum Photos

Referenced:

• Jaqueline Kennedy
• Roy De Carava
• W Gene Smith
• Bruce Davidson
• Eugene Richards
• Susan Meiselas
• Son of Sam
• Gordon Parks
• Gilles Peress

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Magnum legend Chris Steele-Perkins was born in Burma in 1947 to a Burmese mother and an English father, who brought him back to England when he was 2 years old. He published his first photobook The Teds in 1979 and shortly after that joined Magnum photos after an invitation to apply from none other than Josef Koudelka. He subsequently travelled all over the world, covering many of the major global conflicts of the 80’s and 90’s in between working extensively in his home country, and producing a number of books of that work, along with those from Afghanistan and later from his wife’s native country of Japan. He has won, to name but a few awards, The Oscar Barnack Prize, The Robert Capa Gold Medal and a number of World Press awards, and all that despite the fact that he doesn’t really consider himself to be a photojournalist.

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Tony Dočekal (Amsterdam, 1992) is a photographer and visual artist. Her work explores identity, belonging, and the friction between autonomy and societal expectations. Working intuitively, she combines personal encounters with quiet observations. Her images balance intimacy and distance, often showing how personal stories and landscapes reflect larger systems.

Tony’s first book, The Color of Money and Trees, was published by VOID in 2024 and launched at Paris Photo. The work was also exhibited at Biennale Images Vevey alongside her debut short film, Pearls on Credit. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from ArtEZ University of the Arts.

In episode 263 Tony discusses, among other things:

• Her Czech dad and Dutch mum’s history
• Dealing with the ‘weight’ of the photographic history of the American road trip genre
• The advantage of being an outsider
• Getting a dream gig early on - a photobook book about alternative schools
• Going to Lesbos to cover the refugee crisis
• Working with the unhoused for Dutch non-profit the Sheltersuit Foundation
• The story behind her picture of a man in a pink frilly dress…
• … And the one of 9-year-old Lyric in front of a plate of beans
• The short film she made
• The amazing 70’s-built house she has bought with her partner

Referenced:

• Josef Koudelka

Website | Instagram

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John Rankin Waddell, or just Rankin, as he is more commonly known, is a British photographer, publisher, and film director. Best known for work that is on the cultural cusp and leading future trends, he has produced rule-breaking campaigns for brands such as Rolls Royce, Unilever, L’Oréal, Lego, and Samsonite; created wide-reaching projects for charities including Women’s Aid and Macmillan; and shot music videos for the likes of Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora, and Kelis.

As a photographer, Rankin’s portfolio ranges from portraiture to documentary. He has shot The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, Zendaya and Queen Elizabeth II, to name only a few. In 2023, Rankin photographed King Charles III to mark the monarch’s 75th birthday for The Big Issue magazine.

As a publisher, Rankin co-founded the seminal magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1990, and has since published the likes of AnOther and AnOther Man, alongside over 40 books and the fashion and culture publication Hunger.

His photography has been published everywhere from his own publications to Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wonderland, and exhibited in galleries globally, including MoMA, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Rankin lives in London with his wife Tuuli and their dogs.

In episode 262 Rankin discusses, among other things:

• The magazine and show Faik, a first foray into AI
• His love/hate relationship with AI imagery and why he uses it anyway
• The way in which AI will also transform the music industry
• The importance of critical thinking
• The early days - starting Dazed & Confused
• Using the magazine as a ‘Trojan Horse’
• Being confrontational
• Being a ‘dick’ and taking cocaine
• Being saved by photography and fatherhood
• Imposter syndrome and the benefit of losing it
• Making a conscious decision not to be an ‘artist’
• Teaching himself photography
• Collaboration
• Rankin Live - photographing 'normal' people
• Being prolific
• Personal Projects

Website | Instagram

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CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. 
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. 
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Marjolein Martinot is a Dutch photographer, based in France. She was always been drawn to photography from an early age, and has continued using and exploring the medium throughout her life, while raising a family of six children. Her photography touches on the poetic, while striving to remain authentic and true at the same time. She aims to evoke sentiments by using and mixing different photographic approaches and analogue cameras. The prime focus of Marjolein’s work is on everyday life: family, friends, and the places and things that touch her. She currently works on personal projects and commissions. Her debut photobook, Riverland, was very recently published by Stanley Barker. On whose website the blurb states:

“During times of darkness and moments of deep turmoil in her personal life, Dutch photographer and mother of six, Marjolein Martinot, found herself lost, searching for a renewed sense of self. Each evening, she sought solace in nature, walking to a nearby river in the South of France with her camera in hand. There, she captured the quiet beauty of the natural world in the golden light of dusk, forming connections with the animals and families she encountered at the river’s edges—jumping, splashing, climbing, and swinging from the trees.

What began as a ritual of aimless wandering and photographing soon became a form of visual journaling—a quiet meditation on healing and transformation. The water, ever-flowing and unpredictable, mirrored her own emotional state, while the families she met, however briefly, embodied the warmth and belonging she longed for.

Through these intimate, unguarded moments—children mid-leap, ripples catching the last light of day, trees bending towards the water, and horses galloping in the fading glow—Martinot began to piece together a new sense of self. Her photographs, though deeply personal, transcend autobiography, offering a universal reflection on resilience, connection, and the subtle magical beauty of the everyday.”

In episode 261, Marjolein discusses, among other things:

• The beginnings of her book project, Riverland.
• How her mum ran a circus when she was a kid
• What makes a good portrait
• Seeking comfort in nature during difficult times
• The project having a fairy tale element
• Photographing her six children
• The end of her relationship
• What she took away from the workshops she’s attended
• Feedback she’s received about the book

Referenced:

• Vanessa Winship
• George Georgiou
• Israel Ariño
• JH Engstrom
• Sally Mann
• Emmet Gowan

Website | Instagram

EPISODE SPONSORS:

CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. 
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. 
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!

PICDROP
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHARE PHOTO AND VIDEO SHOOTS. CREATE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PHOTO GALLERIES IN SECONDS AND LET YOUR CLIENTS DOWNLOAD, SELECT AND COMMENT ON THEIR FAVOURITE SHOTS. SIGN UP WITH THE CODE “ASMALLVOICE” FOR A TWO-MONTH FREE TRIAL!

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Anna Arendt is a photographer and visual artist living and working in Berlin whose images explore memory, silence, loss, and the invisible links between personal history and larger events. Her work often moves between personal, historical, and symbolic worlds, shot in black-and-white to capture places where the past and present meet.

Anna was born in the German Democratic Republic and was 24 when The Wall fell, at which time her daughter was two. Her parents were born 1940 in Germany, children of war. Both of her grandfathers had been soldiers, who had been in Poland between 1940 and 1942. One came back 2 years after the war was over, the other one never returned.

As a child Anna found a secret shelf that contained photo albums of her family. "It is where I discovered the power of a picture. A picture taken in summer 1940. A young family, my grandmother, her baby and my grandfather in a German uniform. A picture full of contradictions, carrying ambivalent feelings even today."

Anna graduated with a degree in Fine Arts and Set Design and then received a one-year grant from the DAAD to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. For 15 years, she worked as a set and costume designer for opera, drama, and puppet theater, collaborating with directors at theaters across Germany and Switzerland.

Anna recently published her first book, Vanishing, with Charcoal Press. Photographed mostly between Germany and Poland over 15 years, the work slides back and forth through time like a blood memory. Walking naked through the dark forest, wolves circling, howling. A daughter becoming a mother becoming a grandmother becoming a child. Haunted villages, and souls in jeopardy. The harsh reality of the past merges seamlessly with moments of rapture that feel plucked from a Grimm fairy tale.

Photography has now become the center of Anna’s creative life. She continues to develop long-term projects that reflect her search for meaning in places marked by beauty, pain, and the mysteries of time. Alongside her artistic work, she also works with disabled people in an art workshop, sharing the joy of creative expression.

In episode 260, Anna discusses, among other things:

• The origins of her photography
• Growing up in East Germany
• Beginning to understand her family history
• The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989
• Being ‘connected to pictures’
• The importance of visiting Poland and its significance for her family
• The cast of characters in the book, including wolves…
• ….And her friend, who sadly died
• Allowing the photograph to tell her what it wants to be (and where)
• How Charcoal Press came to publish the book
• Her collaboration with publisher Jesse Lenz
• Having a day job and a change of identity
• What she’s currently up to in the darkroom

EPISODE SPONSORS:

CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. 
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. 
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!

PICDROP
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHARE PHOTO AND VIDEO SHOOTS. CREATE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PHOTO GALLERIES IN SECONDS AND LET YOUR CLIENTS DOWNLOAD, SELECT AND COMMENT ON THEIR FAVOURITE SHOTS. SIGN UP WITH THE CODE “ASMALLVOICE” FOR A TWO-MONTH FREE TRIAL!

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Mohamed Bourouissa is an Algerian-born French artist (b. 1978) who lives and works in Paris. Mohamed's practice moves between photography, video, sculpture, and installation, often blurring the lines between these mediums. His work explores social issues, power dynamics, and the representation of marginalized communities.

He often engages with or embeds himself into specific communities for extended periods, spending significant time with individuals and groups to understand their experiences and perspectives before then creating collaborative works that challenge societal structures and explore the complexities of identity. 

Mohamed's work frequently addresses the tensions between different social contexts, particularly those related to race, class, and immigration, often questioning how different social groups are represented in media and art, challenging stereotypes and seeking to offer alternative narratives. 

His work has been exhibited in major museums and biennials worldwide, and in 2020 he received the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for his retrospective exhibition featured in the Arles Festival the previous year.

Mohamed currently has a major solo show at Fondazione MAST in Bologna Italy, curated by Francesco Zanot. The exhibition is entitled Communautés and features four notable works produced over a twenty year span between 2005 and this year - Péripherique, Horse Day, Shoplifters and Hands.

In episode 259, Mohamed discusses, among other things:

• The sense of community growing up in the Parisian suburbs
• His early experiences as a graffiti artist
• His first project, Nous Somme Halles
• The 2005 riots that preceded Péripherique
• Why he decided to stage images… and why he sketches the images out first
• The theme of masculinity and his own experience of growing up without a father present
• The challenges of being a dad
• Knowing that he wanted to be an artist
• How artists must value their own work and learn to say no
• His project Horse Day and how it came about
• Art as a playground
• His new project, Hands
• How he arrives at the choice of medium and the factors that inflence that choice
• Why he is, in his own words, an ‘extremely bad photographer’

Referenced:

• Anoushkashoot
• Jamel Shabazz
• Emma-Charlotte Gobry
• Fletcher Street by Martha Camarillo

Website | Instagram

EPISODE SPONSORS:

CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. 
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. 
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!

PICDROP
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHARE PHOTO AND VIDEO SHOOTS. CREATE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PHOTO GALLERIES IN SECONDS AND LET YOUR CLIENTS DOWNLOAD, SELECT AND COMMENT ON THEIR FAVOURITE SHOTS. SIGN UP WITH THE CODE “ASMALLVOICE” FOR A TWO-MONTH FREE TRIAL!

Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.
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Paul Seawright is Professor of Photography and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. His photographic work is held in many museum collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Photography New York, Arts Councils of Ireland, England and N.Ireland, UK Government Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to undertake a war art commission in Afghanistan and his photographs of battle-sites and minefields have subsequently been exhibited in North America, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Korea, Japan and China. In 2003 he represented Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art and in 1997 won the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Glen Dimplex Prize. He is represented by the Kerlin Gallery Dublin.

Paul was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and the arts.

In episode 258, Paul discusses, among other things:

• The influence of studying at Farnham..
• and Martin Parr…
• …And being at Newport
• Not taking a position
• ‘Allusive documentary’
• The danger of losing the meaning
• The ethical considerations of working on foreign soil
• The essential business of research
• How do you find your next project?
• His USA projects Volunteer and Things Left Unsaid
• The importance of titles
• His work from Rwanda, Beasts of Burden

Referenced:

• Thomas Joshua Cooper
• Anna Fox (Ep. 166)
• Ken Grant (Ep. 128)
• Chris Shaw
• Martin Parr (Eps. 91 & 197)
• Peter Fraser (Ep. 172)
• Paul Graham (Ep. 149)
• Jem Southam (Ep. 174)
• Chris Killip (Ep. 94)
• Victor Burgin
• Anne Williams
• Newport
• Daniel Meadows (Ep. 116)
• Clive Landen
• Ivor Prickett (Ep.204)
• Anastasia Taylor Lind (Ep.68)
• Rich Gilligan
• James Mollison
• Paul Virillo
• Parr and Badger
• Robert Adams, The New West
• Ian Walker, Desert Stories, or Faith In Facts
• Baudrillard
• Calvino, Invisible Cities
• Gilles Peress The Silence
• Alfredo Jaar
• Fergal Keane
• Brian Keenan

Website | Instagram

EPISODE SPONSOR: CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. 
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. 
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!

“‘Allusive documentary’ is probably a good way to think about it. For me, it’s really about - and this is the bit that goes back to my experience of photography in Northern Ireland, which was all about dramacentric imagery - how you can make photographs that have a documentary subject (that might be the closest I come to being a documentarian, that I work with the subject of documentary photography) but with the methodology of an artist. That’s kind of the way I like to frame it, and I think that follows through to the work which is nearly always conceived for the gallery wall.”

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